17 Gorgeous Fall Window Boxes

Plants, Pumpkins, and Other Decor to Create a Stunning Display

By
Lisa Hallett Taylor
photo of writer Lisa Hallett Taylor
Lisa Hallett Taylor
Lisa Hallett Taylor is a writer and editor with 12+ years experience covering architecture, landscape design, and do-it-yourself projects.
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Updated on 11/25/20

Of all your outdoor planters, it's the window boxes that will be on full display throughout the year. If your box doesn't look good, your house won't shine. Front yard boxes and container plants should be well designed, with plants changed out every season or more often to keep the display fresh. If flowers are spent, leggy, dried out, and it looks like you're growing a doll-sized tumbleweed patch, it's time to either get rid of the box or learn how to arrange the right plants for your region and for the right season. 

Here are 17 diverse and beautiful window boxes to give you ideas for fall.

  • 01 of 17

    Urban Boxes

    fall window boxes
    Botanical Blitz

    The Minneapolis-based design firm Botanical Blitz focuses on outdoor floral arrangements and displays, creating growing works of art and changing out plants for clients each season or more often. Large planters on an urban deck featuring eye-catching plants like lime green sweet potato vine (Ipomea), ornamental grasses, mums, coreopsis, and trailing needlepoint ivy.

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  • 02 of 17

    Kale and Mums

    fall window box
    Botanical Blitz

    Yellow chrysanthemums, dwarf ornamental grasses, and ornamental kale provide rich, deep tones of autumn. Small pumpkins are tucked in as a reminder that Halloween and pumpkin pies are around the corner.

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  • 03 of 17

    Keeping It Low

    fall window box
    Driven by Decor

    Kris Jarrett of Driven by Decor believes that layering plants will result in the most attractive window boxes. The boxes at her Connecticut home are hung high, which prevents her from planting taller thrillers (using the thriller, filler, spiller method), as they'd cover up the bottom part of the window (and block the view from indoors). Adding to the challenge: The boxes are shallow, meaning whatever is planted can't develop deep roots. Her solution: cabbage, kale, chrysanthemums, ornamental peppers, gourds, and pumpkins.

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  • 04 of 17

    Autumn Greens

    fall window box with pumpkins
    Q is for Quandie

    Jester's Crown fern, green and white caladium, white mums, cut Annabelle hydrangea flowers, dried Astilbe flowers, frilly ornamental kale, and a fat white pumpkin create a variety of textures and greens in a fall window box arrangement by Linda of Q is for Quandie. She recommends this arrangement for early fall up until frost; the first hard frost will kill the caladium.

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  • 05 of 17

    Tulip Substitutes

    fall window box
    Pretty Pink Tulips

    Since tulips don't grow in the fall, Elizabeth of Pretty Pink Tulips keeps the trailing ivy and other plants in her window box, going for an easy update with mums and pumpkins.

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  • 06 of 17

    Hydrangea Filler

    fall window box
    Hoosier Homemade

    Liz Latham of Hoosier Homemade likes to use odd numbers (a good design rule) for her Indiana home's window boxes. For fall, she uses larger pumpkins and gourds in the middle and at each end, mum plants, and dried hydrangea flowers tucked into a bed of hay and dried grasses that spill over the box for a fun look.

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  • 07 of 17

    Lavender and White

    fall window box with purple
    Bria Hammel Interiors

    Bria Hammel Interiors, based in Mendota Heights, Minnesota, created a stunning lavender/purple and white autumn window box using chrysanthemums, different varieties of ornamental kale and cabbage, white pumpkins, and pale gourds.

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  • 08 of 17

    Cottage Design

    cottage at crossroads window box
    Cottage at the Crossroads

    Jane and Leo Windham of Cottage at the Crossroads are do-it-yourselfers who love to make beautiful things happen in their yard. Their fall window box includes gourds grown in the garden, English ivy, creeping Jenny, foxtail fern (asparagus fern), and annual additions of orange marigolds.

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  • 09 of 17

    Reminders of Late Summer

    church street window box
    Spencer Means / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0

    Snapdragons, million bells, sweet alyssum, and purple pansies grace a brick red-colored window box on Church Street in Charleston, South Carolina.

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  • 10 of 17

    Box of Whimsy

    pumpkin window box
    Lori L. Stalteri / Flickr / CC BY 2.0

    A few mainstays remain along with the mushroom-shaped garden ornaments, but this box is freshened up for fall with yellow-orange coreopsis, ornamental peppers, red-stemmed euphorbia (spurge), pimply yellow gourds, and cream and orange mini pumpkins.

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  • 11 of 17

    Multicolored Mums

    fall window box
    Botanical Blitz

    Rust-orange, yellow, and lilac mums are teamed with beautiful deep-purple million bells (Calibrachoa) and a pumpkin for a charming arrangement.

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  • 12 of 17

    Bay Window Beauty

    bay window in fall
    Spencer Means / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0

    A bay window is adorned with three window boxes, each planted identically with ornamental grasses that create a fountain effect, trailing sweet potato vine, and creeping Jenny.

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  • 13 of 17

    Dazzling Succulents

    succulent window box
    Lisa Hallett Taylor

    In some parts of the southwestern United States and other regions with mild winters, succulents thrive outdoors throughout the year. A window box planted in autumn with colorful succulents will grow during the winter and produce flowers in early spring. This box features a variegated pelargonium (the red and green leaves; not a succulent), flower-like Aeonium, blue-chalk Senecio, and Duddleya.

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  • 14 of 17

    Pretty Pumpkins All in a Row

    fall window box
    Indigo Gardens and Design

    Beth Schelle of Indigo Gardens and Design in South Bend, Indiana, places gourds and pumpkins in various patterns, colors, and shapes in a long window box. Evergreens and arborvitae are tucked in to soften the look and transition to winter.

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  • 15 of 17

    Crotons and Chrysanthemums

    fall window box
    Botanical Blitz

    Dark pink and purple chrysanthemums are planted with tropical-looking, leather-leaf crotons, which make a striking backdrop. 

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  • 16 of 17

    Design Strategy

    fall window box
    Flo's Flowers / Brooklyn Window Boxes

    Florence and Cecelia of Brooklyn Window Boxes by Flo's Gardens have designed outdoor containers for many years and know what they are doing. In the back go the taller grasses or shrub-like plants, while two mid-size plants fill the middle. Up front, three smaller trailing or spilling plants form a mix of flowers and greenery. Their results are stunning foot traffic-stopping displays for each season.

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  • 17 of 17

    Simple Geraniums

    fall window box
    Lori L. Stalteri / Flickr / CC BY 2.0

    Geraniums are hardy and can live for decades. Pruning spent flowers will keep your geraniums looking their best—a must for window boxes that everyone passing by will see. A classic red geranium (actually a pelargonium) shares space with yellow lantana and blue salvia, which all continue to bloom in early fall.